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Acetyl fentanyl is ripping apart families and friends as it is causing many addicts to die from an overdose. Although the name may sound familiar, the drug commonly comes up mixed in with other drugs like heroin. This is the scariest part about the drug – the fact that most of the people who abuse it probably don’t even realize they are taking it!

Acetyl Fentanyl: Stronger Than Heroin

Between five to fifteen times more potent than heroin, acetyl fentanyl has proven to be devastatingly deadly. Also similar to the effects of heroin, the drug is known for producing an opiate high with short breaths, slow heart beats, and a blood pressure lower than normal. People are known to commonly abuse the drug by smoking, sniffing, and injecting the powder substance. The name may also sound familiar, as it actually comes from an even more similarly structured compound, widely known as fentanyl, which has been prescribed to treat patients suffering from ongoing pain.

Though deaths have gone up significantly most recently, acetyl fentanyl causing overdoses in addicts is not a brand new issue. Last year in 2013, several deaths were reported in New England states like Pennsylvania. At first police did not attribute the deaths specific to this designer drug. “Last June, we had a sudden death from heroin overdose,” Pitt County Sheriff Neil Elks began to explain. “Then we had two more shortly after that. So quite naturally we focused on what’s causing all of the sudden these heroin overdoses.” Because it looks like heroin and can be mixed in with the drug, acetyl fentanyl poses quite the risk because it is typically taken unbeknownst to the user. Drug research analyst John Stogner commented, “One of the many downsides of illegal drugs is you just can’t trust your drug dealer.” This is proven true time and time again, as it commonly is reported that drug abusers end up hospitalized for adverse reactions.

Recovery Month Sheds Light

In the midst of the heroin epidemic in the nation and overdoses claiming the lives of people from a wide range of ages, drug addiction has proven to have taken a visible toll on many. September will be another month spent honored as National Recovery Month. This will allow people to spread awareness about a life of recovery that is free from the prison that drugs like acetyl fentanyl are known to keep people entrapped in. People also need to hear that any time they pick up a drug “off the street” and take it, they truly do not know what they are taking. National Recovery Month is about unity and spreading hope, especially during such a dark time when overdoses are becoming the most frequent they have ever been before. Sharing personal experience, strength, and hope during this month of September will be part of the movement to end the suffering that addiction is causing. The dangers of drugs like acetyl fentanyl are becoming more visible in today’s society as they emerge, tearing families apart through tragedies. The best way to avoid pitfalls like such are to stay away from drugs and seek help if you are suffering from a drug addiction in order to recover.